Planning for Mental Health Care on the Information Superhighway

Orange County Psychologist

February 1994

Larry D. Rosen, Ph.D.

Michelle M. Weil, Ph.D.

IMAGINE: You just spent 10 hours over the last two weeks completing the 14 page application for the XYZ Healthcare Panel. You turn to the last two pages and see the following title at the top of the page:

INFORMATION TRANSMISSION

and STORAGE CAPABILITIES

"We at XYZ Healthcare are committed to handling our patient records in a timely, efficient manner. To facilitate information transmission between mental health professionals and our staff we need to know the following about your information tracking, management and transmission capabilities."

Type of Operating System (check all that apply):

MS-DOS

Macintosh

Windows

Other

Microprocessor Speed:

15 MHz

25 MHz

30 MHz

over 30 MHz

Modem Baud Rate:

1200

2400

9600

14,400

Hard Drive Capacity:

20-80 Mb

100-200 Mb

201-400 Mb

over 400 Mb

RAM:

1 Mb

2 Mb

3 Mb

4+Mb

The pages are filled with questions about your fax machine, your modem, your disk drives, your phone system and, of course, your computer. And that doesn't include the questions that ask about your word processing capabilities (no, having an IBM Selectric will not suffice here), your office management program, your automated office billing and your computer-based psychological assessment tools.

What, you say? You have managed to run a very successful practice for the past 10 years without a computer or any of that other fancy stuff. Why should you be required to computerize just to see managed care patients? Well, if you have been paying attention to what our state organization and national organizations have been saying, you now realize that without merging technology into your psychology practice you will be, as one colleague so aptly put it "....left in the dust." We are not talking about changes that will take place in the next decade. We are talking about changes that are taking place NOW and technology that WILL be required of all psychologists in the next few years.

If you saw Part 1 of this series (See "Terms for the Technologically Timid" in the January 1994 issue) you read about operating systems, software, disk drives and some of the "buzz words" associated with computing. In this article we will give you additional information to help you "surf" the information superhighway.

Microprocessor Speed

The microprocessor is the brains of the computer. This is what runs your computer. Most computers are designated by a set of two numbers like 486-25. These numbers "typically" indicate computer power. The first number tells you what "generation" your computer microprocessor was developed. Most IBM and IBM-Compatible computers today are either 386 or 486 machines reflecting the two most recent generations of microprocessors. The computer operates at a speed designated by the second number which is in "MHz" or Megahertz (this is not the giant car rental agency at LAX!). What microprocessor and what speed do you need? That is up to you. We recommend that you try out computers with different microprocessors at different speeds using the same computer software program. Don't be surprised if you don't see a heck of a lot of difference between, say a 386 machine at 25 MHz and a 486 machine at 33 MHz. Where you do notice differences is in how fast your computer will look through a list of patient records to find someone's file or how fast it will save a long document. Otherwise, computers do most everything at very nearly the same speed.

RAM and ROM

What do these words mean and how are they important to you? First of all, the only one that you need to be concerned with is RAM. This is the memory the computer uses to temporarily store information needed by its computer programs. Some programs need more of this and some need less. How much do you need? It depends. In general, if you plan to use your computer for normal office-type of operations you need 4 Mb ("Megabytes") of RAM. Don't worry about this though, because if you find out that you need more working memory later on, RAM can be added for a small cost. We actually added our own and it was kind of fun.

Modem

A modem (a word derived from two other words - modulator and demodulator) allows your computer to talk to other computers over a telephone line. [Many computers today come already equipped with a built-in modem. If not, however, you can buy one that sits next to your computer for very little money.] The modem changes the information into a high pitched tone, much like the sound a fax machine makes when it is connecting. All modems are standard so your computer can send information to any other computer, and certainly to the one at XYZ Healthcare. The signal itself is sent at a speed which is called the Baud Rate. The higher the baud rate, the faster the information is sent.

Electronic Mail

You can send messages from one computer to another using electronic mail or e-mail for short. When you send a message from your computer to someone else's computer you type the message on your computer and send it through your modem to their computer. When the person at the other end turns on his/her computer it might beep and say "You have a mail message. Do you want to read it now?" You can send a message to your brother in Omaha or to the case worker at XYZ Healthcare. You can even send an e-mail message to President Clinton! We did this recently and someone on his staff sent back a message saying that they appreciated our comments. Electronic mail has some "shortcut" symbols that help you convey your feelings along with your words. For example, if you are happy about something you just wrote, you might end your sentence with this symbol : - ) This called a "smiley" (a happy face turned sideways). Guess what these symbols mean:

a. : - ( b. ; - ) c. : - o d. 8 - ) e. : - p

(answers in next month's column)

Communication Software

Communication software programs are needed to help your modem communicate with other computers. One of these will always come with a computer that has a built-in modem. They are usually pretty straightforward to use, too.

In response to the first part of this series, Joann Buchanan requested that we define one other buzz word - a "clone." A clone is an exact copy of another computer, right down to the little transistors and circuit boards inside. A clone will run any program that the original computer will run. Clones are rarely seen any more since most of the companies that made clones got sued by IBM or Apple. Now, it is very common to see "compatible" computers (as in IBM-compatible). These are computers that are not identical but will run most of the software of the copied computer. In today's market, Compaq, Packard Bell, AT&T , Dell and others make IBM-compatible computers.

Hopefully these two articles have helped computers and technology seem a little bit more understandable. Don't hesitate to ask questions! Ask a computer store clerk. Ask a friend. Ask us. Don't feel stupid! Feel informed!

Stay tuned for more useful information under the TECHNOLOGY heading. We're all in this technological era together and it is important to take our feelings of being "technologically challenged" and turn them into "technological confidence."